


The Reading of Tea Leaves

by oh-wellau (oh_well1)



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Divination, F/M, Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 08:31:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16971258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oh_well1/pseuds/oh-wellau
Summary: That one time where every interpretation is probably true.Divination class. Hogwarts AU.





	The Reading of Tea Leaves

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr for Prompts in Panem.  
> The prompt was "Other Worlds".
> 
> For the shapes of the leaves and their interpretations I used “Tasseography. The Art of Reading Tea Leaves, by Cassandra Vablatsky, Author of Unfogging the Future.” You can find it as a pdf online.

 

The fumes of the room mixed with the scent of tea swirl around me and are making me sleepy. Professor Trinket is talking, but my focus keeps drifting away from what she’s saying. I’m aware of something about working in pairs, but I don’t really know what we’re supposed to do. It’s only when Katniss shakes my shoulder that I come to and realise that everybody else has already started working.

I turn to Katniss and look at her through drowsy eyes. She has taken out her parchment paper, quill, and inkwell and set them on top of the dark purple tablecloth that covers our small round table and looks at me expectantly, ready to start.

I shake my head at a loss. “What do we have to do?”

“We’re doing  _tasseography_ ,” she says theatrically, imitating our teacher.

“Right.” I hesitate, “what’s that?”

“We have to read each other’s tea leaves,” she rolls her eyes, clearly as excited as me about the task. “And since you were day dreaming you’re going to read mine first while I write down what you say.”

I groan. We’ve only been having Divination for two months and I absolutely despise it. I can barely keep my eyes open with the smells and scents that waft through the room, never mind my ‘inner eye’. I pick up the copy of ‘Unfogging the Future’ that Professor Trinket left earlier on our table and start turning the pages in hopes to come across what we need.

“From page 21 and on,” Katniss tells me.

“Okay.” I put the book on my lap, open on the page 21, and bring Katniss’ tea cup and plate closer.

“Wait,” she stops me. She picks up the cup and swirls it three times clockwise, spreading the tea leaves around the insides of the cup. “There you go,” she puts it back on the plate in front of me. “Now tell me my future,” she orders, in a teasing way.

I’ll be happy if I can see anything at all. Looking down at the soggy leaves, I focus my complete attention on them, set on finding something. I try angling my head, squinting my eyes, and turning the cup slowly. I keep changing the perspective of the shapes, until I can almost─

There!

“An arrow!” I exclaim, my insides filling with satisfaction at finally being able to see _beyond what meets the eye_. “Look! Here,” I angle the cup for Katniss to see, “that’s definitely an arrow.”

“Uh…” I shot her a warning look before she can contradict me. “Sure, yeah, that’s an arrow.”

I grin in return and start skimming through the pages of the book, looking for what it means. “Okay, so here it says that an arrow means ‘ _bad news in love_ ’. Oh.” I look back up to Katniss realising what I just ‘predicted’ for her, but I can’t decipher her expression, her face a mask. “Sorry about that,” I add sheepishly, and return to the cup trying to think of a way to fix this. “But hey! It’s curved, so that means… um, let me see…” I go back a few pages in the book to the part where it talked about shapes. “ _Curved or wavy lines indicate the possibility of change_ ,” I read out loud. “That’s good.”

My eyes fly back to hers and she gives me what I take as an encouraging smile.

“Okay,” she laughs. “Keep going, I’ll note that down.”

I pick her cup back up and continue to turn it and play with it until I find a new shape. “Um, so this here could be an oyster," I say, checking the page of the words that start with ‘O’. “And that symbolises…” I falter when I see it, but clear my throat and read it out loud anyway. “ _Love, an impending engagement_.” I wiggle my eyebrows at her, imitating Finnick.

She laughs and shakes her head at me. “Uh-huh, whatever you say.” She writes down my interpretation and I go back to the cup.

After about a minute of silence and the feeling of Katniss stare on me, I settle for what could pass as a necklace. “According to the book this has two options depending if it’s whole or broken… Um, it looks pretty whole to me, so that would be… ‘ _admirers_ ’.”

Why do I keep finding things with romantic connotations? Am I projecting?

Reconsidering the image on the tea cup I decide that it’s not really a necklace. “It’s more like a chain,” I tell her and check the book. “That represents ‘ _engagement, wedding._ ’” Ugh. How did I make it worse? Her cheeks turn pink and she looks down to hide her blush.

Following her example, I turn my head down and burrow my face in the infamous tea cup.

This time when I find a mouse, I check the meaning before telling her, and when the words ‘ _theft of heart_ ’ enter my brain I decide to pretend like I didn’t see it and continue searching for shapes.

“Well, how are we going here?” I startle when professor Trinket appears over my shoulder and looks down at the cup in my hands. “Tell me boy, what do you see?”

“Well, so far I’ve found-”

“No, no,” she interrupts me. “Not what you’ve found already, that’s in the past. I want you to open your inner eye and tell me what signs you see in the now.”

“Uh, okay. I see…” I don’t see anything. I don’t want to see anything with the entire class listening in. Angling my head, I find a weirdly shaped rectangle. “I see a vase.” There. That seems safe enough.

“Good, good. A vase means that there is a secret admirer or there will be one in your future.” Professor Trinket says to Katniss. I don’t dare to look up and see her reaction, I just know I need to do something.

I clear my throat before speaking. “Professor? From this angle I’m not so sure it’s really vase. Now that I take a look good at it, it seems more like a volcano.”

“Yes! Yes! Well done. A volcano, interesting.” Please don’t be anything love related. “ _An impending emotional eruption_.”

Katniss turns even redder in embarrassment, her love life discussed in front of the entire classroom.

 “Oh!” The teacher shouts right in my ear and I jump in my seat, almost letting the cup crash to the floor. It probably would be the best that could happen right now. “Oh look at that!” She exclaims, her hands clutching her heart. “The harp! My dear, you have the harp!”

Various gasps echo around the room, and Katniss and I look at each other, neither understanding what the excitement is about.

Professor Trinket directs her question to the classroom, asking who can tell her what the manifestation of the harp means. Delly raises her hand immediately and I find myself dreading whatever is about to come out from her mouth.

“Yes, Delly?”

“The harp, Miss Trinket, is the ultimate symbol for romance.” Delly gushes.

I’m scared to look at Katniss.

“Peeta,” she groans under her breath. She’s going to hex me as soon as the lesson is over.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> In the original version over on tumblr, the Divination professor is Wiress, which I think is more fitting to this class, but Effie's character just seemed more fun.


End file.
